Journal box



Sept. 28, 1954 F. H. BASSETT JOURNAL BOX Filed March 17, 1951 edema 15 N 4 .w R6 V mw d I ma MB T fi 2 d j n u U H 3 J 4 m .QH

Patented Sept. 28, 1954 UNITED STATES ATENT OFFICE JOURNAL BOX Frederic H. Bassett, Denver, 0010., assignor to American Steel Foundries, Chicago, 111., a corporation of New Jersey Application March 17, 1951, Serial No. 216,218

1 Claim. 1

This invention relates to a railway car truck journal box and to the method of forming same, and is more particularly concerned with the provision of a journal box construction adapted to facilitate changing of wheels on a car truck.

To facilitate wheel changes, it has heretofore been the practice to construct journal boxes of two individually cast sections adapted to be bolted together along abutting machined surfaces. It is thus apparent that this type of journal box construction involves two patterns, two molding operations and two machine operations to provide true abutting surfaces on the companion sections. It has heretofore also been the practice to provide each cast journal section with a pair of flanges having cored bolt apertures for registry with cored bolt apertures provided in the companion section. After two complementary sections were individually cast and machined, considerable difliculty was experienced in bolting the sections together due to misalignment of the cored bolt apertures.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a two-piece journal box which is relatively simple and inexpensive in construction and adapted to be assembled and disassembled without difiiculty to facilitate the changing of wheels on car trucks.

This invention further contemplates the provision of a journal box adapted to be cast in one piece having spaced upper and lower bolt flanges extending along each side thereof, each pair of flanges being cored to provide sets of aligned bolt apertures. The one-piece journal box casting is then saw out along a plane extending between the two sets of bolt flanges to thus provide individual upper and lower sections adapted to be bolted together.

This invention further contemplates the provision of a journal box adapted to be cast in one piece and then divided into two sections by means of a Wavy saw cut to facilitate alignment of the two sections during assembly.

This invention embodies other novel features, details of construction and arrangement of parts which are hereinafter set forth in the specification and claim and illustrated in the accompanying drawing wherein:

Figure l is a side elevational view illustrating a journal box embodying features of the present invention.

1 Figure 2 is a transverse sectional view taken along the line 27-2. of Figure 1.

Figure 3 is a longitudinal sectional view taken along the line 3-3 of Figure 2; and

Figure 4 is a longitudinal sectional view taken along the line 44 of Figure 2.

Referring now to the drawing for a better understanding of the present invention, the journal box is shown as comprising a one-piece metal casting 6 formed with a pair of upper bolt flanges 'l--I and a pair of lower bolt flanges B8. The upper and lower flanges I and 8 are formed with cored bolt apertures 9 and I I, respectively, to receive bolts (not shown). To insure proper registry of the bolt apertures 51 with their companion bolt apertures II, each set of apertures is preferably formed by means of a single core, indicated at I2.

After the casting 6 has been formed in the manner thus shown and described, it is saw cut at I3 along a plane extending across the casting and between the bolt flanges I and 8 to divide the casting into two sections I4 and I6. To facilitate assembly of the two sections I4 and I6, the saw out I3 preferably extends along a wavy line forming irregular complementary abutting surfaces. The one-piece metal casting 6 is thus adapted to be saw cut to form complementary upper and lower sections I4 and I6 adapted to be aligned without difficulty and bolted together by means of bolts extending through the aligned cored bolt apertures 9 and II.

In forming the journal box in the manner thus shown and described, it will be noted that the lower section It is adapted to be readily aligned with its companion upper section I4 due to their irregular saw cut abutting surfaces. It will also be noted that casting the journal box in one piece permits the use of a single core I2 to form each set of registering bolt apertures 9 and II in the flanges 'I and 8 respectively.

It will be understood that the saw cut I3 is illustrated as an exaggerated undulating out; however, it has been discovered that a conventional saw out which appears to the eye as a straight line out is sufficiently irregular to achieve the above described objectives of the invention.

While this invention has been shown in but one form, it is obvious to those skilled in this art that it is not so limited but is susceptible of various changes and modifications without departing from the spirit and scope of the claimed invention.

I claim:

In an as cast one piece journal box for use on a railway car truck, said box having a pair of vertically spaced upper and lower bolt flanges extending horizontally along each side thereof, said upper flanges being coplanar and said lower flanges being coplanar, cored bolt apertures in vertical alignment in each pair of flanges, said box being cored internally to form an arcuate upwardly facing surface, straight vertical surfaces forming continuations of the opposite exremities of said arcuate upwardly facing surface, the points of joinder between said arcuate upwardly facing surface and said straight vertical surfaces being located intermediate the planes formed by said upper and lower flanges, and a substantially horizontal wavy saw cut located intermediate said planes approximately in the area of said points of joinder, said saw cut dividing said box into upper and lower portions and forming on each complementary undulating abutting surfaces to facilitate alignment of the portions when same are bolted together.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Number 15 Number 

